Bill Text: CA AB841 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Amended
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Pupil nutrition: food and beverages: advertising: corporate incentive programs.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Passed) 2017-10-15 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 843, Statutes of 2017. [AB841 Detail]
Download: California-2017-AB841-Amended.html
Bill Title: Pupil nutrition: food and beverages: advertising: corporate incentive programs.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Passed) 2017-10-15 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 843, Statutes of 2017. [AB841 Detail]
Download: California-2017-AB841-Amended.html
Amended
IN
Assembly
May 02, 2017 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 23, 2017 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill | No. 841 |
Introduced by Assembly Member Weber |
February 16, 2017 |
An act to add Section 49431.9 to the Education Code, relating to pupil nutrition.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 841, as amended, Weber.
Pupil nutrition: food and beverages: advertising: corporate incentive programs.
Existing law requires, as a condition of receipt of funds to reimburse a school for free and reduced-price meals sold or served to pupils, a school or school district to comply with specified requirements and prohibitions, including not selling or serving a food item that contains artificial trans fat. Existing law provides that the only competitive snack foods that may be sold to pupils are fruit, vegetable, dairy, protein, or whole grain-rich food items, in an elementary, middle, or high school, as provided.
This bill would prohibit, except as provided, a school or school district from advertising food or beverages or the corporate brand of the food or beverages, as provided. The bill would prohibit, except as provided, a school or school district from participating in a corporate incentive program that rewards pupils with free or discounted
foods or beverages when the pupils reach certain academic goals or that provides funds to schools in exchange for consumer purchases of foods and beverages, as provided. The bill would define “advertising,” “brand,” and “food or beverage” for these purposes. The bill would provide that it is the intent of the Legislature that the governing board of a school district annually review its compliance with these provisions.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) Childhood obesity rates in the United States have risen dramatically over the past 30 years, and today more than one-third of American children are obese or overweight. In California, 33 percent of children are overweight or obese. Poor diet and physical inactivity increase the risk for certain chronic health conditions, including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
(b) The medical costs of obesity are rising rapidly in the United States and are estimated to be $147 billion per year. California spends
more in public and private money on the health consequences of obesity than any other state. Including lost productivity, overweight and obesity in California cost costs families, employers, the health care industry, and the government more than $21 billion each year.
(c) The marketing of foods of poor nutritional value to American children contributes to the rise in obesity by affecting children’s food preferences, choices, and diet. In 2009, the food industry spent approximately $1.8 billion on marketing mainly foods of poor nutritional value to youth. Children are particularly vulnerable to
advertising because their cognitive abilities are not fully formed until the their early 20s.
(d) The mission of our schools is to educate our children. Increasingly, studies demonstrate a relationship between healthy eating, regular physical activity, and pupils’ academic success. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that pupils who are physically active and eat a nutritious diet receive higher grades than their classmates who are physically inactive and eat foods that are less nutritious. Helping pupils to stay healthy promotes academic success.
(e) While national, state, and local
efforts have improved the nutritional quality of foods provided and sold in schools, many schools permit the marketing of foods high in calories, fat, and sugar and of minimal nutritional value. That marketing includes sales, free samples, and advertising of unhealthy foods, corporate-sponsored fundraising programs that encourage pupils and their families to sell, purchase, and consume foods and beverages with little nutritional value, incentive programs, which reward children with free or discounted foods or beverages when
they reach certain academic goals, sponsorship of school programs or events, and branded educational materials.
(f) Permitting the advertising of foods and beverages at schools that may not be sold on campus during the schoolday interferes with school messages promoting good health and academic success. If children are taught through school health and nutrition curriculum to limit their intake of these foods and at the same time the foods are promoted by school-based advertising and marketing, the lessons of school health and nutrition curricula are undermined. The marketing also undermines parents’ efforts to feed their children a healthy diet.
SEC. 2.
Section 49431.9 is added to the Education Code, to read:49431.9.
(a) For purposes of this section, and unless the context requires otherwise, the following terms have the following meanings:(1) “Advertising” means an oral, written, or graphic statement or representation, including a company logo or trademark, made for the purposes of promoting the use or sale of a product by the producer, manufacturer, distributor, seller, or any other entity with a commercial interest in the product.
(2) “Brand” means a corporate or product name, a business logo, or a mark, regardless of whether it may legally qualify as a trademark used by a seller or manufacturer to identify goods
or services and to distinguish them from competitors’ goods.
(3) “Food or beverage” means any food or beverage that does not comply with the nutrition standards for food or beverages pursuant to this article.
(b) Except as provided in subdivision (c), a school or a school district shall not do any of the following:
(1) Advertise any food or beverage, or the corporate brand of the food or beverage, unless every the food and beverage product manufactured, sold, or distributed under the corporate brand name can be served or sold on the school campus
during the schoolday. This prohibition includes the advertising on any property or facility owned or leased by the school district or school and used at any time for school-related activities, including, but not limited to, school buildings, athletic fields, facilities, signs, scoreboards, or parking lots, or any schoolbuses or other vehicles, equipment, vending machines, uniforms, educational material, or supplies.
(2) Participate in a corporate incentive program that rewards pupils with free or discounted foods or beverages when they reach certain academic goals.
(3) Participate in a corporate-sponsored program that provides funds to schools in exchange for consumer purchases of foods or beverages.
(c) The
restriction on advertising in subdivision (b) does not apply to any of the following:
(1) Advertising on broadcast, digital, or print media, unless the media are produced or controlled by the local educational agency, school, faculty, or its pupils.
(2) Advertising on clothing with brand images worn on school
grounds.
(3) Advertising contained in product packaging.
(d) It is the intent of the Legislature that the governing board of a school district annually review its compliance with this section.